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MP Tueni, Three Killed in Beirut Car Bombing
BEIRUT,
December 12, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Lebanese
Christian MP Gibran Tueni, a prominent journalist and a vocal critic
of Syria, and three others were killed Monday, December 12, in a car
bombing in the Beirut Christian suburb of Mkalles.
Police
said a car bomb blew up near Tueni's armoured four-wheel drive
vehicle, blasting it off the road into a ravine and engulfing it in
flames, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Firemen
recovered the body of the 48-year-old MP and his driver Nicolas Flouti
from the charred Land Cruiser.
The
explosion has left at least ten passers-by injured, including two
seriously.
It
set several cars ablaze and damaged nearby shops and buildings. Police
and soldiers cordoned off the area as rescue workers ferried
casualties to hospitals.
Tueni
was publisher, chairman of the board and general manager of Lebanon's
leading newspaper An-Nahar. He was married, with four
daughters.
The
attack came just a day after UN chief investigator Detlev Mehlis
delivered a report to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on the probe
into the February murder of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri.
Hit
List
Tueni
had spent much of his time since August outside Lebanon, citing
security fears.
He
was believed to have returned to Beirut late on Sunday, December 11,
according to Reuters.
"Lebanese
officials received accurate information from the international
investigation committee about an assassination list of several
politicians," Tueni told the Arabic-language Radio Orient in
Paris in August.
"My
name is on top of this list."
Since
Hariri's death, at least 13 attacks have rocked Lebanon, killing
several prominent figures, including well-known journalist Samir
Kassir, who was killed on June 2 when a bomb blew up in his car.
The
last attack was on September 25 when May Chidiac, 40, a Christian news
presenter and political talk show host on LBC television, was maimed
by a bomb in her car in the northern outskirts of Beirut.
The
attacks have created a climate of fear in Lebanon, with a number of
politicians and figures, including Hariri's MP son Saad, spending much
of their time outside the country.
Syrian
Denial
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Lebanese policemen inspect cars damaged by the explosion. (Reuters).
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Druze
leader and MP Walid Jumblatt immediately pointed the finger at Syria
over Tueni's killing
"The
message has come to us," he said, alluding to remarks made by
Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad on Russian television on Sunday,
December 11.
Bashar,
referring to possible UN sanctions against Damascus, said that if the
situation in Syria and Iraq was not good, the Middle East would be
unstable and the whole world would pay.
Tueni's
uncle Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh, who escaped an
earlier assassination attempt, threatened to resign if the government
did not meet Monday "to demand an inquiry under the supervision
of the Security Council on all the crimes committed by Syria."
Damascus
immediately denied any role in the new bombing.
Syrian
Information Minister Mehdi Dakhlallah told Lebanese television LBC
that "foreign interference is at the root of the current
chaos."
"Syria
denounces all attacks whoever the victims," he said.
"Whatever
the differences between this or that person, Syria does not subscribe
to these methods, which are used by the numerous enemies of
Lebanon."
In
interviews with the Doha-based Aljazeera news television, several
Lebanese observers accused Israel’s intelligence services (Mossad)
of being behind this blast and previous ones.
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